I did a thread awhile back http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=404677 of things academically you would like to see changed.

as a result I got some tremendous feedback and actually got a lot of things changed such as the drop date pushed back to match Grad schools, freshmen retake aka repeat without penalty, university re-enrollment issues and even some stuff that was non academic related. there are more I helped on just cant remember them all.


anyways this time around I am looking for things that the whole university would like to see changed...

some things already in mind are longer hours at the cafeterias and gym obviously, bringing a form of halloween to Hills st and shuttin down the street HOWLoween to be more exact, bonfires/pep rallies before some of our major games, crosswalk bridge over western/avent ferry, tuition changes(decreases) and even the wolfline improvement.

any other ideas that you would like to see changed?

[Edited on October 16, 2007 at 4:59 PM. Reason : i]

10/16/2007 4:55:15 PM

go back to tracks instead of this mypack portal

10/16/2007 5:01:11 PM

^word.

10/16/2007 5:08:26 PM

seriously though, how about working to lower student fees. Make all student senate/president etc... completely service positions, no stipend. Let the clubs support themselves via their own self-funding (you use it you pay for it all). You get the idea, stop financing other peoples hobbies and pretend government with my money.

10/16/2007 5:14:32 PM

Quote :

"freshmen retake aka repeat without penalty"

i don't think that had anything to do with your thread

10/16/2007 5:58:14 PM

^^ FTW

10/16/2007 6:22:34 PM

Quote :

"i don't think that had anything to do with your thread "

what do you mean?
its clearly in that thread people wanted it changed or worked on, and we did indeed propose to the chancellor that the wording be changed and the hours be changed.

I will look for the legislation later. If thats what you mean???

10/16/2007 11:14:13 PM

Fight textbook costs! Textbooks make up about 1/4 of my school-related expenses this year, and about 1/8th of my total expenditures for the year, and that's after buying used and online.

Counter publishers' aggressive tactics:

-Put restrictions on switching to a new edition if the old edition is less than 5 years old.
-Encourage an MIT-like open courseware system, use of open materials, and non-use of bundled single use materials like CD roms and web codes. Financial awards to State profs who write open texts?

-Encourage professors to be more price-sensitive. Typically profs that choose textbooks have no idea how much they cost or the cost of switching to new editions.

-Move up the textbook commitment date AND announcement dates so students and bookstores have more time to plan for purchasing.

===
And another issue, I've noticed that distance ed classes seem to FedEx papers back and forth a lot. It seems to me like a semester's worth of fedex costs for homework and tests would pay for a new scanner and printing on both ends, and ultimately lower the cost of distance ed classes.

10/17/2007 10:37:16 AM

Quote :

"Move up the textbook commitment date AND announcement dates so students and bookstores have more time to plan for purchasing."

Most people don't realize how big of a deal this is. The main campus bookstore's supply of used books is almost entirely contingent on how early professors get their orders in. It can swing from 10% to 60% of stock on textbooks not just-released from semester to semester depending on this. If your professor doesn't chose/confirm their textbook early, they're basically screwing you or your scholarship out of money.

10/17/2007 10:48:27 AM

yea the textbooks is a good idea, fedex and all

lower fees

anymore?

10/18/2007 12:36:34 AM

cut clubs so that all we have is football and men's basketball, amirite

10/18/2007 1:05:39 AM

Change the m/f ratio by accepting more hot chicks who are not bitch, with loose morals, low standards, and low self-esteem

[Edited on October 18, 2007 at 1:35 AM. Reason : .]

10/18/2007 1:32:49 AM

How do those here feel about +/- letter grades?

10/18/2007 3:03:07 AM

^ I like it

Cause a 94 and a 98 aren't the same and shouldn't be measured the same.

10/18/2007 8:31:13 AM

as long as an A+ is 4.333, the +/- system is ok

if you arent willing to have an A+ as 4.333, it is just 4.000, then the +/- system needs to be abolished

10/18/2007 9:37:09 AM

+/- letter grade system blows, but only because I am always on the - end

Post grade distributions for summer courses

The text book idea should def. be pushed to the extreme, I hate it when a prof. claims that the newest edition of the book is needed when they even say that only a few problems have changed since the last edition.

I believe that the entire setting up a meeting with my advisor to recieve my PIN is a complete waste of time, only because little or no advising goes on (I believe many people face this problem), make the system to where everyone gets their PIN and make the whole meeting bullshit optional.

Parking for the gym is fucking insane when intramural sports are "in session" (not sure how to word that).

Health Center needs more spaces for commuting patients...it's not enough that a person is sick, but then they have to struggle with finding a place to park so they can be on time for their appointment.

Even though I am out of it, I believe that an S.I. program for Physics courses would be very helpful, similar to the ones they have for chemistry. I can't stress how awful it is to have a worthless prof. that doesn't teach shit then they recommend the "tutoring" that is offered in FOX... The tutoring is for ~5 different physics courses and only about 2 people to help everyone, you spend 3 hours in there and get help on maybe 3 problems. I would much rather see the $$$ go towards an SI program.

Not related academically, but the trash that is left behind from tailgating is in fucking insane. Provide more trash bins for students or issue littering tickets, do something because there is no reason to leave beer cans and sometimes even furniture behind.

The gum on the walls under the train just looks trashy, everyone know exactly where I am talking about.

10/18/2007 10:01:10 AM

lol just park in the parking deck a block away from the gym

10/18/2007 2:38:53 PM

Quote :

"stop financing other peoples hobbies and pretend government with my money. "

This makes me angry

10/18/2007 4:09:48 PM

^ ^ I will admit that is fair, I just fucking hate walking all that way when I could've just parked in the health center lot which is a lot closer...this also means a lot when the weather is shitty, like when it rains.

10/18/2007 4:49:32 PM

^^ it makes me angry that by now I have probably spent nearly several thousand dollars on inane clubs and sports I don't give a rat's behind about. I was forced to donate that money in order to get an education here at NCSU. It would be better to trim the nonessentials so that people are not forced to support things which have little if anything to do with becoming an engineer, or mathematician, or english major, or whatever. Besides the gross inequity of taking money from one group just for the sake of giving it to another, there is also the fact that many people do not just have several hundred extra bucks just sitting around for leisure activities. Maybe they could use that money to keep from going deeper into debt. I will gladly admit that NCSU is a better bargain then most schools out there but that's no reason not to strive to be more financially responsible.

10/18/2007 5:17:38 PM

Quote :

"I believe that the entire setting up a meeting with my advisor to recieve my PIN is a complete waste of time, only because little or no advising goes on (I believe many people face this problem), make the system to where everyone gets their PIN and make the whole meeting bullshit optional."

for the MAE dept they have "group advising". 2 advisors, 40 - 50 students. They do a little presentation and tell you what to do with your paper work and if you have no questions you can leave and they release your pin later that day if everything is in order. If you have questions, you can ask one of the 2 advisors.


I def agree with the textbook issue.

10/18/2007 5:23:42 PM

Quote :

"I believe that the entire setting up a meeting with my advisor to recieve my PIN is a complete waste of time, only because little or no advising goes on (I believe many people face this problem), make the system to where everyone gets their PIN and make the whole meeting bullshit optional."

A better solution would be to train professor in advising and to put some accountability into the system. However, I think NCSU administrators are allergic to the word or concept of accountability.

10/18/2007 9:53:03 PM

well it could be like at georgia tech where you are totally responsible for yourself all the way

you have to fill out the paper work to verify that you can graduate and submit it to the department and they check it and clear you

i know for the ME department at nc state, they did all the work for you

[Edited on October 18, 2007 at 11:08 PM. Reason : 

10/18/2007 11:08:01 PM

^ I don't think emulating georgia tech is a good thing. If it were up to the people who run that place, I don't think they would have students. They would just have an indentured servitude program named something suspiciously like grad school.

10/19/2007 12:02:28 AM

Quote :

"Even though I am out of it, I believe that an S.I. program for Physics courses would be very helpful, similar to the ones they have for chemistry. I would much rather see the $$$ go towards an SI program."

This existed back in '03 when I was a freshman and it was VERY helpful, much more helpful than my re-gurgitate the textbook professor for PY205. If S.I. in physics is gone, it needs to be brought back.

10/19/2007 2:38:57 AM

yeah, I do not see why they would get rid of an SI program...a lot of people I know only pass various CH classes because of the great SI instructors.

Dr. Daniels = worst PY prof. in existence

10/19/2007 7:12:27 AM

I would love to see a stop to people putting various garbage (flyers) under my windshield wipers, but I doubt this will ever happen.

10/19/2007 7:17:07 AM

i never went to physics SI because if i remember correctly the SI program had set times and i work better when i can get help when it is more convenient for me (between classes during the day vs at night)

but i loved the physics tutorial center. i went there once or twice a week as an undergrad and it was really helpful. i don't know what kind of tutorial centers there are on campus now, but i feel like physics, chemistry, and math programs should all have tutorial centers. i would much rather pay to help fund those than random clubs.

10/19/2007 10:54:08 AM

Only tutorial center for PY now is in FOX and it is almost impossible and worthless to get help in there unless it is to just solve a couple problems for webassign. The SI program was useful to actually help LEARN the information, not to learn how to solve a single problem. Not sure about the Calc stuff but I have always had VERY helpful prof. and TA's in my math classes. I believe that the CH department is the best set, with SI, very helpful profs, and the tutorial center it is almost impossible to NOT find the time or the help to learn information. Hell I even had other profs offer to help me with information when I had problems in CH, just because my prof. was busy or her office hours weren't working.

10/19/2007 11:24:52 AM

i tell you something i would like to NOT see...fucking contruction 12 months a year

10/19/2007 12:32:18 PM

I would like to see the university profile and evaluate the actual teaching abilities of a professor before unleashing them on us. I have had mostly great professors, in my opinion, but a few have made my learning experience (and the experience of others) in a couple of classes downright sorry.

The professors should be able to disseminate the material in a way that is understandable. It never fails, I have one class per semester with lower-level difficulty that is made incredibly painful by an inexperienced professor. Just because someone has a PHD, doesn't necessarily mean they have the ability to teach.

I just get angry because the bad professors I've had have been so bad that I feel as though I have to completely teach myself. This shouldn't be the case, it should be a combination of student and professor effort, with obviously the majority of the effort being put forth by the student.

NCSU should have someone sit in on new professors' classes to ensure that they are presenting the material appropriately. Yes, this pulls resources from other areas, but we're talking about maybe sending an experienced professor to sit in on two one hour and fifteen minute courses.

I just feel cheated when I get someone crappy. I'm probably extra-angry because I have someone crappy now. Only 1/5 of the class shows up because it's so terrible.

10/19/2007 1:11:09 PM

^ I agree it really pisses me off when people bitch about individuals that just try to take the classes with the best grade distribution, saying we are here to learn, but when you take a regular class with a different prof. they don't teach shit. If I wanted to spend thousands of dollars learning material on my own then I wouldn't have gone to college. In all honesty I have had MUCH better TA instructors than PhD instructors. There is no reason to enter a class and on the first day the prof. tell you straight up that 35-45% of the class would fail (happened to me in CE 214 in the summer), if that is the case then get rid of the motherfucker and find someone that has the ability to TEACH the material well enough for more people to pass , weed out course or not that high of a failing rate is inexcusable.

10/19/2007 1:55:31 PM

JV football team(probably would be better to watch then what we have currently)

10/20/2007 11:10:09 AM

^^^ Several department heads (I won't say who specifically for fear of losing my assistantships) and the chancellor, though to a less degree, have all stated unequivocally that teaching, and by extension the quality of education offered by the university, isn't a priority. Any professor that focuses on teaching before research (i.e. bringing in money to the university via overhead charges), publishing, and establishing NCSU's reputation as an international power in research and technological development (i.e. bringing in money), should expect to be asked to find somewhere else to work.

10/21/2007 4:28:23 PM

if they've already stated it "unequivocally" then you should be able to say who they are.

anyhow, this is old news. all research institutions are like this.

10/21/2007 7:43:23 PM

^ Unequivocal statements can be made behind closed doors where only the faculty and not the general public are meant to hear.

10/21/2007 7:59:34 PM

not if i unequivocally change the definition of unequivocal.

10/21/2007 8:10:25 PM

^ I am not embiggened by the cromulance of your statement.

10/21/2007 9:11:28 PM

10/21/2007 9:50:26 PM

^^^^^^
There are of course bad teachers here, but there are also lots of good ones. At least in my experience there are only a few real lemons in the math dept. By in large the professors actually do care about teaching, they may not be willing to spoon feed it, but maybe that is just because this is a university and a certain amount of self-motivation is expected.

Now I have heard of situations in other departments where there is some professor who is horrible, petty and just generally inept w.r.t meeting the needs of his students. Often this is a old professor who has been teaching some course for decades.

I would argue this is a problem of tenure, not of monitoring.

You can bet the dept. knows he is doing a bad job, they are just powerless to stop it due to the bad professors position and rank in the dept.

By the way, there is much more preparation for highschool teachers does that weed out the lemons? From what I've heard it is not uncommon to have a similar problem, again tenure being the real problem.

Research is not bad, it encourages excellence. I'm glad I had a chance to take a few courses from active researchers, worked out well for me, now I am just a month or two's reading away from doing my own new work on those subjects.

A much bigger obstacle for the general quality of education is the general intolerance of the undergraduate population to do real work in the courses. I was in a difficult major and I found this to be the case. People always want the easy road and when they are pushed outside the comfort zone they start whining about how the prereqs didn't prepare them or something. Well, if you already knew it then what's the point ? That feeling of uncertainty and newness is an essentials step towards taking it to a "whole n-other level"

10/22/2007 1:26:03 AM

make those motherfuckers learn written/spoken English, three new MAE profs, none of which i figure i can pronounce their whole name correctly and vice versa.

10/22/2007 2:27:26 AM

dey tuk ur jobs, man!

10/22/2007 2:45:59 PM

i wish they'd make dh hill 24 hours on friday and saturday

i wish there was more parking near the biltmore end of campus

10/22/2007 3:52:08 PM

I wish everyone supported School Tool as much as it used to be. it saved my ass several times

10/22/2007 4:56:04 PM

is that paul cousins is dead?^


bttt

10/29/2007 4:53:14 PM

fucking money spent on useless stuff...like trees on varsity that they just let DIE

10/30/2007 2:32:20 PM

Against school rules to have a test or anything due the day after a basketball or football game.

10/30/2007 6:13:42 PM

^ Keep dreaming.

10/30/2007 7:05:23 PM

oh I will

10/31/2007 10:28:03 PM

Push for proper camera monitoring of our cars in the parking decks with enough cameras and equipment that you can track the cars that enter the deck, so if you film one bashing into somebody the film can be used as evidence to report the crime once somebody reports that their car has been hit. This isn't academic i know, but it seems like more people are getting concerned about it what with the fact that more and more students have to commute (since they aren't exactly erecting new places for students to live within walking distance of campus every year).

Suggest that 2 civics classes be mandatory for all NCSU students of all majors. People keep forgetting how to be proper citizens these days... A basic intro level class that goes over the rough history of our country and its government and its basic layout and structure (and all the basic stuff you learned in 9th grade that most people have forgotten by now). Mandate a certain level of grade in this class for people to get their degrees (c-wall it). Have an advanced level to the class where students are exposed to proper ideas about the democratic process and how if they continue to give a shit about nothing besides themselves (our "gimme gimme" culture) that they will only doom the nation into political unrest and uncertainty. Hammer the ideas into their heads that their votes are important and they count and tie it into student government. Use these classes like you're using this thread, as a way for students to provide feedback on the university and student government in order to get it to better serve them (or to stop taking so much of their money if that's what they are concerned about!). You can use this as a way of getting the entire university to interact better as a community instead of as a bunch of colleges or as a bunch of people who don't give a damn about each other outside of their little social circles. It's also my personal opinion that a lot of students just don't care about this stuff these days, and get far too caught up in their own bullshit. Encouraging a more worldly view wouldn't hurt anything, especially if it gets kids more involved with using and protecting the rights they were given to use and protect as young citizens in the US.

Improve the degree audit system so that students have an idea of what alternatives they actually have available. When we are sorting out our final semester here, and there's only one course that we can take instead of our elective course that was canceled that semester, we could benefit from the degree audit system telling us which class that was. It would be immensely useful if the degree audit system could look at and say what courses you could take in the future based upon the classes you have planned now (see what's prerequisite, if you didn't plan it yet then any course that uses it won't be available as an option to add). Have it so you can click on a "view alternatives" page so all of your chosen electives (humanities, technical, design, and so on) are listed with a list of alternative courses you can take based upon your current planned (and met) prerequisites. This would REALLY help people who have schedules that can't be met since the university decides to drop one or two classes every semester (they've gotten me with this twice now but I can still graduate, as long as they don't kill anything else I need to take). They could plan more prerequisites like basic biology or organic chemistry into their schedule as a summer course or something and have a safety net in case something is cancelled.

Encourage departments that require advisors to have ratings for the advisors students can go to. Let students look up if an advisor is a transportation advisor or a structural advisor or a hydrology advisor (in terms of specialty, I'm using civil engineering as an example for obvious reasons), and to see if this advisor tends to be hands on or hands off in terms of letting their students plan their own goals. I wish I'd known earlier what my advisor specialized in and that he was more hands off, and that I had an easy way to indicate preference as to who I'd like to have advising me. Instead I just did all the work myself and probably have gotten less for my time and money here at state than would've been possible with some advising in the field I'm interested in.

Expanding on the degree audit and pre-emptive course planning stuff, some other tools could be useful to students as well. Give students tools that show them what they need to do to achieve certain things like graduating with a 3.25 or something. A little box off to the side of your mypack portal that asked you what your goal was for grades would be (in-major GPA, average total GPA, etc) and would show you how well you have to perform to reach that goal. Just something like "To graduate next fall with a 3.25 GPA, you would need to average a 3.32 GPA for the next two semesters, or a B+ average over all of your classes." I think it would help a lot of people realize how little time they have to get their goals in order and to get their grades up. It'd be more useful than your advisor just saying "your grades aren't bad".

As far as the fee-based funding goes, make students pay those fees if they use the services. Requiring students to pay to join a group and to get benefits from it isn't criminal or exclusionary. Requiring students to pay for groups that they never join or see benefits from is idiotic. I imagine if this was followed through with, you could cut down these fees to the point that students would save money even if they were in numerous clubs. This would also prevent people from just "joining" clubs so they can look like they're active in the university community.

Ooh, another useful tool they could put into the scheduler would be links that show you where your class will be held (what building) on a university map. Sometimes people screw themselves by getting their buildings mixed up and realizing they have 15 minutes to go from central campus to centennial campus 3 days a week. Plus it'll help alleviate n00b confusion and keep people from stopping me on the way to class the first day and asking directions.

Put some of the donations that pour into the university into a trust fund, money from which is dedicated to campus beautification. Let students vote on beautification alternatives through the vote.ncsu.edu website and advertise polls to ALL students via their e-mails. "This week on the ballot" or something like that. This way they could pick whether they want to have the roads on campus restriped, to have the gum scraped off that bridge and have it painted, or to redo the landscaping along hillsborough street with plants that keep students from crossing through the dirt (or that provide pathways so they don't trample the precious crab grass into nothing). NCSU has a surprising number of ugly spots and it would be cool if students could vote on the worst eye sores.

Consider having digital press releases from student government like an NCSU news brief or something. I think half the time the reason we don't know wtf student government is doing is because there isn't an easy way for us to just click on something and get a tidbit from a SG meeting that explains, in SG's own words, why so and so fee increase is necessary or why hours are being cut back at university facilities. It might allow feedback to occur before the issue is resolved so you don't end up with angry students lashing back and cursing student government's name (if only because they didn't know they were going to change something until it happened).

Get more cops to patrol on foot throughout campus. I never see cops out and about except for those mounted cops and the one guy who walks through the bookstore every now and then.

See if the central campus bookstore can't be relocated to centennial in a new building with a direct (or fairly direct) shuttle service to and from central campus. Renovate the old building and repair the roof, clean out the mold, and redo the interior so there's a computer lab on the bottom floor and a mixed use computer lab, study, and coffee lounge on the top floor with wifi access to draw all the students out of their dorms when they do homework. Keep it open 24/7.

Redo the fountain next to Talley student center so that it circulates water that's contained in a smaller area. Use a rainwater collection system with a cistern to keep it going, and don't use city of raleigh water in it any more (I assume they do since they always shut it off when they enact higher stage water restrictions). Use some of the land you reclaim from the fountain for some nice greenery like a small flower garden or something. Something Tony Avent would like. It would be a minor boost to our environmental appearance, and would get rid of the most damned wasteful parts of that fountain.

I could keep yammering. There's a lot we can improve at the university, I'm just throwin out ideas.

[Edited on November 1, 2007 at 3:43 AM. Reason : I write essay on stuff like this mang, in my spare time. :O]

11/1/2007 3:43:02 AM